Y'all just made my week with all the likes, comments and messages of support in my launch of Building the Talent Machine. It’s been a 10 year journey to get to this point and I’m excited and confident. Sure it’s a bit scary to take the leap, but the thing is that when you free yourself up to focus on the work you want to do, you do better work.
And that’s what motivates me right now. To create the best content I can for the recruiting industry. And it’s a slow burn success. Sure I have close to 20,000 followers on LinkedIn of a highly saturated demographics of recruiters, startup founders, and marketers and software engineers in tech. But to me it’s not looking at the vanity metrics. It’s focusing on the mission. To be a conduit for the transfer of knowledge in the recruiting world as we upskill and uplift one another.
But since this is social media, yes I had a campaign manager at an influencer agency I’m working with told me impressions were insane. (His words. I don’t care that much.) Sure I want my posts to be successful so I can deliver value for our sponsors and partners, but to me what makes this successful is the motivation from hearing a story about what it’s like to build the talent machine within a company. Because I’ve been there. Right in the trenches with you. Headcount planning, drafting JDs, running comp analysis, creating interview plans, implementing RecOps workflows into the ATS, sourcing, screening and closing candidates, and being a part of promotion and attrition conversations. Recruiting is never a dull moment. And now it’s time to make some more moments in new ways. Through content. (And yes, placements.)
Let me be clear. I AM A RECRUITER, NOT ONLY. Yes I work reqs. Yes I source. Yes I hire ICs and VPs. And the majority of roles I’ve placed in the last 5 years are self sourced. From my own sleuthing, building my own workflows, and outbound campaigns. Testing, using and advising the best technology software tools in the market. Speaking from stages, reporting from the conference hallways. I’m here for the love of the game. That’s it.
And who would have thought that being voted "Easiest To Talk To" in a high school year book would turn into making a living talking to my recruiting friends? That’s the cool thing about Recruiting. It suits me physiologically. IYKYK. If you’re a true recruiter you too will feel this in your bones. I’m talking 2-3 hours a day of research, 5-6 hours of calls, project management, content creation, and writing emails. The thing is I LOVE SALES. I always have. And don’t get it twisted, recruiting is sales. (A topic for another episode and post.) It’s also storytelling.
And I can't wait to share more stories with you. And make more friends!
So since people keep asking me what, how, and why I'm doing everything I'm doing right now as a recruiter and marketer, here's the story of how I went from cold emailing Eric Friedman to launching a media company and recruiting agency together. I could spend an entire post about Eric. But he’s truly one of the brightest minds I’ve come across. And we genuinely enjoy working together. I’m a bit of a creative big idea guy, and he balances me out on the operations and mentorship side. It’s a working relationship we’ve tested before, and were successful! So now we’re doing it again.
And building this talent machine in public, sharing more behind the scenes thoughts on the journey, but for now the only thing that comes to mind is THANK YOU!
Your Hype Man,
Brando
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